National Pit Bull Awareness Day
Over the decades, pit bulls have unfortunately gained a bad reputation as dangerous, unpredictably aggressive, and inherently vicious. National Pit Bull Awareness Day was created in 2007 to debunk the lies and raise awareness on the truth, with the hopes that the expansion of advocacy and education would save the lives of pit bulls by negating the fear and bias spread by the media.
National Pit Bull Awareness Day, or NPBAD, has helped focus and open conversation regarding the positive characteristics of pit bulls, including their affectionate and loving nature, intelligence, and trainability. It is also important to note that “Pit Bull" is not a breed, but rather a generic term that encompasses several dog breeds. For this article, "Pit Bull" includes the American Pit Bull Terrier and American Staffordshire Terrier.
To honor NPDAB, we wanted to highlight one of our rescue partners, One Tail at a Time, by telling their story on their fight against animal homelessness as well as feature a few adoptable pit bulls! The second half of this blog is dedicated to the story and a day in the life of a BLVD Vet pit bull treasure, L.T.
Mission: End pet homelessness by making pet ownership a joyful and accessible experience for all. We accomplish this by rescuing animals from overcrowded shelters, placing them in loving forever homes and providing support and resources to pet owners in need.
Our friends at One Tail at a Time have been fighting to end pet homelessness and euthanasia in animal shelters since 2008. With the support of the community and selflessness of volunteers, One Tail at a Time has been able to expand into one of the top transfer partners for both open access shelters in Chicago and rescuing dogs in need from southern states. As of 2019, One Tail at a Time hosts a bustling dog adoption program at the Adoption Center, an ISO Program focusing on Chicago’s dogs, a Kitten Team that cares for neonate kittens, vaccine clinics in low income neighborhoods, and leads the Chicagoland Rescue Intervention & Support Program (“CRISP”) which keeps pets intending to be surrendered at the city shelter with their loving families.
Story Time: Meet L.T.
A BLVD Vet Treasure
Since the summer of 2015, Boulevard Vet has had the honor to care for and shower love onto L.T. We instantly fell in love and have remained great friends to this day. To give the best example for what day-to-day life looks like as a pit bull owner, we reached out to her parents and they gladly shared her story with us.
LT stands for Little Treasure, but we also call her Little Batface, Little Sharktopus, Little Teapot, Little Truck, Little Pig Baby, Little Trouble, and many other things, but mostly just LT.
She was homeless when we found her. Or, as they say, she found us. In early 2010 she was walking the sidewalks in our neighborhood of Echo Park in Los Angeles and wandered right on into the pet store (smart girl!) right down the street from the music venue we were running and living in at the time. Our friend knew we had been looking to adopt a pup, and mentioned that an adorable lost, little blue pit bull was down the street. No collar, no tags, no chip, we flyered the neighborhood and contacted local shelters to see if we could find her owner or anyone was looking for her. After a few days, we knew she was ours. It was love.
LT never leaves our side. Some dogs bolt when the door opens. Not LT. LT is a people person! We ran that music venue from 2010-2015, and I reckon LT holds the world record for most live music shows attended by a canine. All of our friends' bands are her favorites and she's incredible with people after all that party-going.
She’s spirited, aware, and goes with the flow! As a result, we almost never reprimand her or tell her "No." She can be stubborn, though, and when she wants to go a certain direction on her walks, it's almost impossible to change her mind. In those instances, we just go with her flow.
Fun Fact: Every time she leaves the bed or the couch, she drags her back legs behind her like a little frog or something, stretching her legs and almost always getting a little butt rub from us in the process; this is a classic pit bull move.
Likes: Occupying 75% of a king sized bed(both vertically and horizontally), to be at eye level, sitting on chairs like humans, food, our babysitter, Chicago, people, going to BLVD Vet, new experiences, daycare, dog park, watching squirrels, rabbits, and deer
Dislikes: Getting wet, rainy days (thinks the weather is offensive and will lay in bed all day), coyotes, performing tricks without treats(does not appreciate the demand)
LT is our Little Treasure. She is our heart and we are hers. Who Rescued Who is absolutely right, and at the end of the day, we're lucky she found us.
